Massive infrastructure plan

Klobuchar’s first 2020 policy proposal: A massive infrastructure plan

The Minnesota Democrat rolled out a plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars updating roads, bridges and internet connectivity.

By ELENA SCHNEIDER

Sen. Amy Klobuchar wants to bring back Infrastructure Week.

The Trump administration’s on-again, off-again focus on infrastructure has become a punchline in Washington, but the Minnesota senator has made it the first major policy proposal of her presidential campaign, outlining a wide-ranging plan to address issues from fixing crumbling roadways to updating public school facilities and pledging to connect every American household to the internet by 2022.

In a Medium post published Thursday morning, Klobuchar called fixing the country’s broken infrastructure her “top budget priority,” while jabbing at President Donald Trump’s plan as a “mirage" that "leaves the details up to lawmakers."

The proposal ties into the central rationale of Klobuchar’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, as she casts herself as a no-nonsense pragmatist who isn’t taken with some of the more sweeping ideological proposals gaining steam within her party. Klobuchar believes that Democratic primary voters are tired of “flowery language” and want a candidate to “be honest about what you think we can get done,” she told POLITICO in an interview earlier this month.

Klobuchar’s proposal pointed to her success working with both parties to rebuild Minnesota’s Interstate 35 Bridge just over a year after it collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people. She has echoed those themes of bipartisanship and pragmatism in her frequent trips to early caucus and primary states.

“America needs a president who will get things done and pass progressive policies that keep our country moving,” the policy memo reads.

Klobuchar’s seven-point investment plan hits on a slew of Democratic priorities, hewing largely to the party’s mainstream positions. Klobuchar proposed channeling $650 billion in federal funding into the plan, as well as investing in public-private partnerships and bringing back the Obama administration’s “Build America Bonds.”

In addition to improving roads and bridges, Klobuchar pledged to modernize airports, seaports and modern waterways, noting that “allowing these assets to fall into disrepair hurts our economy.” The campaign also pledged work to update and expand public transportation, particularly in low-income, majority-minority communities, while also committing to reliable access to safe and clean water.

To pay for it, Klobuchar floated raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 25 percent, rolling back one of the central pieces of the Republican Party’s tax law passed in December 2017. She also suggested she would raise investments by “closing loopholes that encourage U.S. companies to move jobs and operations overseas, establishing a financial risk fee on our largest banks, and increasing efforts for tax enforcement” — without including many specifics on how those standards would be enforced.

It isn’t clear if Klobuchar’s funding mechanism would cover the enormous cost of her proposal, particularly as transportation experts believe that paying for such investments would require levying a user fee, like an increase in the gas tax or a fee on miles traveled.

Klobuchar’s entry into the Democratic policy primary follows recent proposals from Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, as the Democrats running for president seek to distinguish themselves on the party’s agenda. Harris pitched raising teacher pay this week, rolling out a plan with a $315 billion price tag over 10 years. Warren, who has paced the field in new policy rollouts, proposed breaking up big agribusiness corporations and supporting small family farms, as well as instituting a wealth tax on families with a net worth of $50 million or higher.

On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also released her 2018 tax returns, challenging her fellow 2020 candidates to do the same.

Klobuchar’s plan also highlighted her commitment to "doing something real about climate change" and to “sweeping legislation that invests in green infrastructure,” but the proposal is vague on how she plans to accomplish it or benchmarks she’d set to reach that goal. She touted that transitioning to a "clean energy" economy "means good-paying jobs for people across the country."

Klobuchar’s proposal did not name-check the Green New Deal, an environmental platform popularized by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the Democratic Party’s progressive left. Klobuchar has signaled her support for it — but she’s also said she doesn’t “think we’re going to get rid of entire industries in the U.S.”

“We need to get this debate going, and this is put out there as an aspiration in that something we need to move toward,” she said during a CNN town hall last month. “Do I think we can cross ever ‘T’ and dot every ‘I’ in 10 years? Actually, I think that would be very difficult to do.”